by Mel Sparke
“I wanted to surprise you,” Cat grinned triumphantly. “And it looks like I did.”
“You sure did. And I’ve got to hand it to you, Cat, you were great,” added Matt.
“My, a compliment from you, Matt Ryan. Will wonders never cease?” Cat purred. “Mind you, my surprise nearly backfired - I thought you lot were going to ruin it for me.”
“What do you mean?” asked Sonja.
“Well, when I saw you’d practically taken up the whole front row, it put me off so much I nearly forgot my opening lines.”
“you’ve got Joe to thank for that then. He queued for ages so we could get the best seats,” Maya explained, as Joe shuffled uneasily in his Caterpillar boots, his face crimson.
“I… er… I said I’d be there in the front row cheering you on,” he explained. “And I didn’t want to let you down…”
What he was saying sounded pathetic now, Joe thought, and wished he’d stopped himself before he’d blurted it out.
“Oh, you schweetie,” said Cat, planting a theatrical, red-smeared kiss on his cheek.
Joe felt like a reluctant five-year-old getting smothered in hugs by an overenthusiastic relative. Any vague flutters of romantic feeling he may have had for Cat disappeared in that one smoke-infused instant.
“Though in future I’d prefer it if you warned me,” she wittered on once she’d let him go. “We actors are so sensitive, you know, the slightest little upset or surprise can ruin a performance!”
“What rubbish are you spouting there, girl?”
Cat’s Fairy Godmother, in the shape of Vikki, had sidled up beside the crowd.
“Oh, everyone - this is Vikki!” Cat giggled, thrilled to introduce her new friend to her old ones.
“Hi! “ Vikki smiled at them, giving them a wave of her wand at the same time. “Listen, Cat -I don’t mean to drag you away, but we’re all heading off to the party soon and the costume girls want to get us out of these dresses!”
Cat stuck out her bottom lip petulantly as she held out the beautiful skirts of her ballgown. “Aw…” she humphed.
“We’ll love you and leave you then, Cat,” said Ollie, leading the others away.
“Come and tell us all about it down the End tomorrow!” shouted Sonja.
“Thanks, guys!” Cat watched her friends trundle off and blew them a kiss as they disappeared down the corridor.
“Now, I’ve just got one thing to say to you,” said Vikki, fixing her with a serious stare.
“What?” said Cat in surprise. Everyone had been so nice that she couldn’t bear it if Vikki was going to say something to spoil it.
“What are you playing at, flirting with Prince Moron a minute ago? After him being so mean to you before?”
“Ah!” Cat grinned, now that she knew what Vikki was getting at. “I’m just exercising my talent as an actress!”
“How’s that?” Vikki frowned.
“After all that flirting on stage, and after seeing how I well pulled it off as an actress, he’s falling for me, isn’t he? And I’m just playing him along. I figure I’ll keep him dangling tonight at the party, and then as soon as he goes to kiss me - and I know he’ll try - I’m going to—” Cat slapped her white-gloved hands together ”—cut him dead! Preferably when everyone’s listening!”
“Payback time!” shrieked Vikki.
“Too right!” said Cat, her eyes glinting wickedly and most definitely not innocently. “No one treats me like some sad little Cinderella!”
CHAPTER 18
BACK DOWN TO EARTH
“Isn’t it great to be able to have a lie-in on a Wednesday morning and know you’re not going to get hassled by your mum to get out of bed before eight?” Sonja stretched lazily in her seat in the End, before settling, back and taking another sip of coffee.
“Mmm,” agreed Kerry. “And to know that you don’t have to worry about what homework you’ve got to do for a couple of weeks? It’s bliss…”
It was getting on for midday and the girls had managed to drag themselves out of their pits at home in order to make the short journey to the café for a caffeine pick-me-up.
They loved school holidays; especially the Christmas break which in a lot of ways was more exciting than the summer one. At least at this time of year, the foul weather was compensated for by the fact that you knew you were going to get loads of presents and have a great time.
“Have you sent off your uni applications then?” Sonja asked.
“Urn, yes… yes, of course,” said Kerry, tapping her spoon agitatedly against her coffee cup. “How about you?”
“Yep. The worst thing now is having to sit back and wait for them to reply. I just want to get on with it now. I want to know where I’ll be living this time next year.”
Outside the window, they could see Joe and Maya on the other side of the road, ready to cross. Matt and Gabrielle were strolling up from the direction of the station car park, where Matt had probably left his Golf.
“So I guess we’re all at a loose end then,” said Matt to explain the sudden influx of the crowd. “And it’s only the first day of the holidays for you lot.”
“Unlike you, for whom life is one long holiday,” Sonja jeered. “One DJing job every week or two and you think that’s hard work. I bet—”
Sonja broke off, her line of vision interrupted by the sight of someone outside.
“Uh-oh, look out, you guys,” she chortled. “She’s doing her Cameron Diaz look again.”
The others looked out of the window and saw Cat strutting towards the café from across the road. She came steaming in, all clattering heels and rustling PVC, a pair of dark glasses perched on top of her head.
The last time they’d seen her was briefly the previous Sunday morning, when she’d still been high as a kite from her acting debut and its aftermath. She’d finally (and hurriedly) told her friends about how she’d landed the part, her struggle against the snobbery of the other actors, and her crowning moment when she’d told Glenn, her Prince Charming, to get lost at the cast party in no uncertain terms.
Then, quick as she’d breezed in, she was off again. Off to meet her new best buddy Vikki, to relive the highs and lows of the last few weeks over a large strawberry sundae in town.
On Sunday, she’d been bubbly to the point of boiling over. A few days on and she appeared to have regained her composure.
“Hi, guys,” she simpered, lowering herself graciously on to the red vinyl seat next to Maya. Opening her bag, she casually pulled out a copy of the local paper and dropped it on the table.
“Didn’t think the Winstead Gazette was quite your thing. Thought you preferred OK and Hello!” teased Sonja, knowing full well that there was a photo of Cat inside - in full Cinderella gown -handing over a cheque to the charity the panto had raised funds for. Sonja’s dad had pointed it out to her already.
Cat fixed her cousin with an ‘I’ll-show-you!’ stare and silently turned to the appropriate page.
Kerry gasped and pored over the piece, with Maya, Joe and Gabrielle craning their necks to see better.
Matt was pleased for her, but didn’t let that stand in the way of making a dig.
“Wow, Cat - with that kind of media coverage, what are you doing slumming it here at the End?” he laughed. “Why aren’t you having tea at the Ritz, with one of a long list of directors dying to sign you up to their next £50 million blockbuster? What’s gone wrong?”
“Oh, very funny,” Cat shrugged, “Actually, for your information, Matthew Ryan, there was a talent scout in to see the show on Saturday night.”
“Really? Has he been in touch with you?” asked Maya, glancing up from the paper.
“No,” Cat huffed, flopping her ams on to the table and dropping her head on to them in frustration.
All of a sudden she looked less like Cameron Diaz and more like Bart Simpson having a strop.
Sonja slapped her hand to her mouth and pretended to cough. It was the only way she could cover up the uncontrollab
le guffaws she felt rising from her stomach. She didn’t dare look at anyone else for fear that she’d end up in complete spasms; instead, she stared at the table, studying a grain of sugar in an attempt to appear normal.
“So, you’ve definitely got the acting bug now then?” asked Gabrielle, full of awe at Cat’s success.
“Oooh, yes,” said Cat, lifting her head and picking up where she’d left off. “I mean, who cares about some stupid talent scout? There’ll be plenty of others.”
“That’s the spirit, Cat,” Maya praised her.
“Yeah, and even though I’m not really interested in all that theatre stuff you have to study, I’m seriously thinking of changing my course to drama after Christmas.”
“Er, Cat - I know you don’t want to hear this, but there are a couple of problems with your plan,” Sonja found herself saying.
“Like what?” Cat replied defensively.
“Like you’re nearly half-way through the first year of your course already - there’d be too much to catch up on. You’d have to wait and start next September,” her cousin pointed out. “And another thing, your mum would go absolutely spare if you mucked about and changed courses, after you having to persuade her so hard that you wanted to do beauty therapy in the first place!”
“You’re just trying to spoil everything, Sonja, as usual!” Cat snapped unreasonably, as she tried to hide her disappointment at hearing common sense. “Just you wait! You’ll be eating your words in a few years time, when I’m living it up in Hollywood, starring in Sunset Beach…”
Joe smiled and realised how glad he was to have the old Cat back. It was a lot less confusing.
Ollie poked his head around the back entrance to the End-of-the-Line café at the end of his stint at the record shop next door and saw Anna still hard at it. She was loading the dishwasher (For the umpteenth time today, I’ll bet, thought Ollie) and whistling something that sounded like I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day. Nick had gone all seasonal and stuck a copy of it - along with other old Christmas classics - in the End’s jukebox.
“Hi, Anna,” he announced and grinned as her head shot round in surprise. “How’s it going?”
“Oh, hi, Ollie,” she smiled. “It’s been pretty mad; we had the usual Friday mum and toddler groups in, plus loads of people dropping in after they got back from Christmas shopping in the city.”
“Christmas Eve… they’re all leaving it a bit late, aren’t they?”
Ollie had a broad grin on his face as he spoke, Anna noticed.
“Bet you only did yours this lunchtime!” she guessed.
“Too right!” he said. “Had my list… shot round the shops… no problem!”
“And how was the record shop today?”
“Manic, for some reason. Looks like loads of people are going to be getting second-hand CDs and LPs for Christmas. And I’m going to be more manic tonight - we’ve got a local firm having a do in the back room at the pub.”
“Poor Ol,” Anna said, giving him a sympathetic look. “So you’re not coming out to play tonight?”
“Nah. You guys will just have to sample the delights of Enigma without me. You are going, aren’t you?”
“Oh, yes - got to get into the Christmas spirit,” smiled Anna, though the image of the long empty day stretching ahead tomorrow hung heavy on her.
“Good. Are you planning to get involved in this kissing competition Sonja and Cat are so keen on?”
“Somehow, I think I’ll leave that to the experts,” grinned Anna.
“Wise move. Listen, Anna,” said OIlie, leaning on the dishwasher and looking earnestly into her eyes, as though he’d just read her thoughts. “I meant what I said about you coming to The Swan tomorrow too. Have you thought any more about it?”
Anna still felt uncomfortable at the idea of turning up in a busy pub on her own, which would be filled with happy groupings of friends and families celebrating Christmas Day together. OIlie was trying to be kind, but Anna had already resigned herself to twenty-four hours alone behind her own front door.
“Yeah, I might pop along,” she said non-committally.
“Which means no,” sighed OIlie, sensing her martyrish mood.
Anna smiled weakly at her friend, knowing he’d read her mind again…
CHAPTER 19
SNOG-ATHON
“I know you’re going to tell me to shut up again, but I wish Ollie was coming…”
“Shut up, Kez,” Sonja said brightly as she carefully dotted a couple of glitter stars on her friend’s cheek. “And hold still or these’ll end up on your nose.”
Kerry stood in front of Sonja’s bedroom mirror and gazed dolefully at her reflection. She and Maya had come round to Sonja’s to get ready for the Christmas Eve party, but for Kerry, the excitement was dampened by the knowledge that her boyfriend would be stuck collecting glasses in his parents’ pub instead of being in her arms.
“I know I’m being silly,” Kerry said, “but it’s our first Christmas together and I wanted tonight to be special…”
“As it is, you’ll be the only sad old bag in the place at the end of the night who’s not snogging anyone,” grinned Sonja in an attempt to inject some lightness into the conversation. “Maya, on the other hand, will be after every guy in the place, won’t you, Maya?”
She turned to the vaguely horrified Maya and gave her a wink.
“I don’t think so,” Maya replied, her nose wrinkled in disgust. “Getting off with lads in nightclubs is seedy at the best of times, but on Christmas Eve? Yuk! That has to be the tackiest thing ever.”
“Oh, come on, don’t be such a spoilsport,” Sonja laughed. “Someone’s got to give me a run for my money.”
“You mean you’re still on for this kissing competition?” Kerry asked, staring at Sonja in astonishment. “What about Owen?”
“Well, he’s not here, is he?” said Sonja, shrugging her shoulders. “And it’s not as if we’re joined at the hip. I mean, I care about him - you all know I do - but it’s not like I can even call myself his girlfriend, we see each other so rarely.”
To Maya, it sounded like a show of total bravado. Sonja was obviously still stinging from the disappointment of finding out Owen wasn’t coming for Christmas after all.
“Oh, yes, “ said Sonja, smoothing her slinky top down and checking out her reflection in the mirror. “I’ve got this competition thing in the bag…”
When the girls got to Enigma at a time they thought was early enough, they had to queue for twenty minutes before they could get in - even with the passes Matt had wangled for them. When they did, the place was packed. And it wasn’t even ten o’clock.
“God, it’s cramped in here,” Maya complained as they fought their way through hordes of revellers towards the dance floor.
“Yeah, but have you seen the lads?” Sonja shouted above the music. “Pretty good catch tonight. Should be able to find a few that won’t be too much of a hardship to snog.”
Maya looked around the darkened room: as far as she was concerned the place was dripping with dorks. She was surer still that Sonja was covering up her heartache with a lot of bluster.
Idly looking around the club in an attempt to spot even one guy she thought she might be interested in, Maya noticed Cat nearby with the two Dutch guys, Rudi and Marc. At the same time, Cat saw Maya and began frantically waving to her.
Maya sighed and made her way over, wondering if she was going to hear the same stuff about this stupid kissing competition from Sonja’s cousin.
“Maya, you know Rudi and Marc, don’t ya?” hollered Cat.
“Yes, of course,” Maya frowned at Cat. “I helped you sell them tickets for the pantomime during one of The Loud’s gigs, remember?”
“Yes, but these naughty boys didn’t come, did you?” Cat teased them, waggling her finger at them.
“We’re very sorry,” the one Maya knew as Rudi began to explain. “My uncle, he took us on a trip last weekend - to see some big scenes.”
&n
bsp; “Sights,” his friend corrected. “Big sights. Sorry, our English is still a little bad.”
“That’s OK,” Maya reassured the boys, while trying to work out what a big sight was and if they’d enjoyed it. “Better than my Dutch anyway.”
“Pardon?”
Uh-oh, Maya smiled to herself. This is going to be fun. Not.
“You would like to dance on me?” said Rudi.
“With me,” Maya corrected. “You mean ‘would you like to dance with me?’”
The boy looked delighted. “Yes, please! Thank you very much.” He took hold of Maya’s hand and led her on to the dance floor.
Instantly, Maya found herself in a tight clinch with a wet mouth firmly clamped on to hers.
“Woah!” Maya exclaimed, struggling away from his grasp, “What was that all about?!”
“What?” he asked, surprised. “You don’t like to kiss me?”
“No!” said Maya, wondering how to put into words how inappropriate it was to do something like that; how she wasn’t that kind of girl; how he was right out of order - and all in a way he could understand. Instead, she took the quickest route and did what Maya never liked to do - she lied.
“I’ve got a boyfriend,” she shouted above the music.
“I’m so sorry - I should not have…” he apologised as he followed her off the dance floor.
Maya rolled her eyes to the ceiling and made a vow to kill Cat. Something told her the poor lad had been put up to it…
Sonja stood by the bar, listening to some smoothie try and impress her with his witty (or so he thought) lines of chat. Though she didn’t let on, Sonja was bored. Her intention tonight had been to grab as many Christmas kisses as she could, to have a good time, flirt a bit, and forget - temporarily - about Owen.
But it wasn’t quite working out like that.
“I’m just going to the loo,” Sonja finally said, placing her orange juice on the bar and sidling away from Mr Smooth, who seemed surprised to see her tear herself away.
Sonja got to the Ladies and ran her wrists under one of the cold water taps. She studied her reflection and wondered what was the matter with her.